Louder Than Love by Jessica Topper

Katrina “Tree” is a librarian who has been floating in a haze since her husband died. She and her 4 year old daughter have moved back to her home town and have surrounded themselves with friends. When looking for a musician for the library’s childrens’ program, she runs across Adrian Graves. Adrian used to be famous and is now living a shadow of a life. Tree and Adrian set out on a journey of self discovery and healing, falling in love along the way.

Tree and Adrian have so much hurt in their past that at times their struggles to return to life are hard to witness. But their support for each other is sweet and charming. I quickly fell for each of them.

I can admit to not being a huge fan of the rockers that are flooding the pool of romance heroes lately, but the way that the author wrote Adrian really worked for me. I was pulled into the mystery that is Adrian so completely that I was almost halfway through the story before I realized that it was being told completely from Tree’s point of view.

My only complaint is that there is a small secondary story running through the middle of the book involving an ex-boyfriend of Tree’s. It added a small element of suspense, but ended without a true sense of closure. It just seemed really out of place in the story.

In this debut novel, Jessica Hopper has shown her strength in creating strong characters in an emotional story. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

I’m curious though. Have you fallen on the rocker hero bandwagon? Which is your favorite rocker hero?